A PUB restaurant has undergone a huge £200,000 overhaul to bring south America to south Essex.

The White Horse in Ramsden Heath will unveil its transformed restaurant, Urban Fresh, by the end of this month, with the menu changed from the traditional pub food options.

Instead, a south American theme has been created with fresh food at the forefront, including juicy steaks served alongside wines from Argentina and Chile.

Pub food options will still be available in the bar and seating areas of the pub itself.

Owner Steve Haslam, who also runs the Bread and Cheese pub in Benfleet, teamed up with investors for the project, who splashed around £180,000 on the transformation.

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He said: “Coming out of the pandemic gave us a chance to assess where we wanted to go.

“We’re really excited and the team can’t wait to get started.

“It’s been completely redesigned, and it is looking great.

“We wanted to do something different and bring south America to Essex.

“Some of the flavours are really strong and we hope people love it.”

Inside the restaurant, a graffiti wall has been created alongside funky artwork elsewhere along the walls, to create a different style of pub restaurant.

During the build, 65 per cent of the materials used have been recycled.

Work began around five months ago.

Mr Haslam added: “It’s been a labour of love so far, but the theme was something we were really attracted to.

“The investors have been really brave and have backed us, so we’re really grateful to them. You can still enjoy pub food options in the pub, but you can walk through to a completely new restaurant on the other side.

“We’re really keen to make sure the food is fresh.

“We’ve been here for a few years now and we wanted to shake things up a bit.”

Mr Haslam recently revealed how supply chain issues are causing restaurants and pubs to remove certain items off the menu.

He fears the problem could worsen over the winter.

The owner hopes the ongoing issues don’t affect the restaurant’s opening in a few weeks time.